Ben Fuchs

Ben Fuchs is a nutritional pharmacist from Colorado. He specializes in using nutritional supplements when other healthcare practitioners use toxic pharmaceutical drugs.He is the founder and formulator of Truth Treatment Systems for skin care, host of The Bright Side syndicated radio show, a member of Youngevity's Scientific Advisory Board, health expert and frequent guest on Coast to Coast am with George Noory."The human body is a healing and regenerating system, designed divinely to heal & renew itself on a moment to moment basis." "Take charge of your biochemistry through foods and supplements, rather than allow toxic prescription drugs to take charge of you." ~Ben Fuchs

Jan

2014

Half an Avocado

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

This past November’s issue of the highly regarded publication ”Nutritional Journal” has a cool article about avocados. It quotes a study (entitled, somewhat awkwardly, “A Randomized Crossover Study to Evaluate the Effect of Haas Avocado Intake on Post-Ingestive Satiety and Insulin Levels and Subsequent Energy Intake in Overweight Adults “!) that compared the effects of adding a fresh avocado to a lunchtime meal to the effects of eating a standard non-avocado-including lunch. Scientists were looking to see how avocado consumption would influence blood sugar and insulin responses, and satisfaction and further food intake. The researchers, from the Department of Nutrition at Loma Linda University found that participants who added half an avocado to their lunch reported a significantly decreased desire to eat by 40 percent over a three hour period and 28 percent over a five hour period compared to their desire to eat after a standard, non-avocado-containing lunch. Even more significantly, their satisfaction was long lasting. Three hours after eating participants reported increased satisfaction by 26 percent. And the avocados didn’t throw off blood sugar. According to Dr. Joan Sabat who led the research team “…there was no increase in blood sugar levels beyond what was observed after eating the standard lunch”.

So what is it that makes avocados so satisfying? Well, aside from the fiber and the nutrients which are always satiety-inducing, probably the most hunger busting element of the succulent green fruit are the fats. Avocados are among the plant world’s most lipid-dense products, containing significant amounts of both saturated and unsaturated fats. According to the USDA, 1 cup of avocado contains over 4 teaspoons of fat. What’s more, it’s got nearly 3 grams of protein (about as much as half an egg) and nearly 25 percent of the RDA of Vitamin C. And, next to zero calories derived from sugar! Considering that kind of nutritional payoff, it’s no wonder that avocados have been farmed for millennia. They’re one of the oldest cultivated fruits; Central American farmers have been growing them since 8000 BC.

The most common avocado is the Hass variety, it comprises over 75 percent of the US avocado crop, which is located and largely concentrated in California, Florida and Hawaii and boasts business of nearly half a billion dollars annually. Other varieties include the oversized Florida Fuerte avocado that’s less fatty and gram for gram lower in calories than the venerable Haas, and the cocktail avocado which is pitless, and as tasty and delicious as it is difficult to peel and hard to find.

Did you know you can prevent avocados from browning by sprinkling the flesh with a little lime or lemon juice?
Use lots of Celtic Sea Salt on raw, fresh avocados. The salt and avocado fats will act synergistically to amplify the distinctive tastes and subtle flavors of the rich, buttery fruit.
Can’t wait to eat your hard avocado? You can hasten it’s ripening by putting it in a paper bag. The bag will trap ethylene oxide, a ripening-inducing gas that is emitted by the tasty fruit as it ages. Make sure you keep the bag in a dark cool area and you check your avocado regularly or you may end up making guacamole!

Jan

2014

Natural Moisture Factor for Skin

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

Mother Nature is nothing if not abundant. Just think of how many birds and bees and blades of grass exist in the natural world. Yet while Lady Gaia epitomizes generosity at the same time she doesn’t waste her wealth. That’s why plants grown with artificial fertilizers and pesticides produce less anti-oxidant and other medicinal and nutritional compounds than those grown organically, free of artificial growth inducing and protective chemicals. They simply don’t need to. Because they’re being protected artificially, they produce less of their own defensive molecules, which form the bulk of what we call phyto-nutrients.

Likewise with the skin. Under ordinary conditions, the skin, when healthy, makes its own moisturizing chemicals. Elements including fats (especially something called squalane, which is has many structural similarities to Vitamin A), fatty acids and vitamins as well as water trapping sugars and proteins form a biochemical complex scientists call the Natural Moisture Factor (NMF) which keeps water trapped in the skin. But if you use a typical standard issue moisturizing cream or lotion, which is composed of wax and oils that function to seal in moisture, the less NMF your skin will need to produce. That means, the more moisturizer you use on your skin, the less natural moisture factors your skin will need to produce and ultimately the drier your skin will be. In other words, the best way to assure yourself of needing a moisturizing product, is to use one!

The best strategy for keeping skin moist and hydrated is to make sure that you’re ingesting nutrients and raw materials that help the skin make the Natural Moisture Factor. Your diet should include plenty of fatty foods including olives, sardines, salmon and coconut oil. One of the quickest ways to create “xerodermia” (dry skin) is to go on a low-fat or fat free diet. Essential fatty acids, so-called Omega-6s and Omega-3s can help too. 10 to 20 grams of Omega-6 and 3 to 6 grams of Omega-3 are probably enough. You can get what you need with a daily dose of 6-12 capsules of a quality EFA product like Youngevity’s Ultimate EFAs or 2-3 tablespoonsful of a nutritional EFA oil such as Udo’s Blend. And don’t forget about Vitamin A. As anyone who has used Accutane (which works by suppressing Vitamin A activity) can tell you, depriving the body of this key vitamin will guarantee skin dryness. Use 20,000 international units a day. Make sure you’re getting quality protein too, especially from whey and egg both of which contain the amino acids that form a critical part of the NMF.

Topically, your best bet is to use substances that are already in the skin. These are more likely to be absorbed and utilized and at the same they are less likely to cause a suppressant effect on the NMF. Topical squalane which is typically derived from shark liver or olives is wonderful, although it may be a bit heavy for some. Vitamin A and a special form of Vitamin C with a fatty consistency can be very effective as well. Hyaluronic acid has potent water-trapping properties and can be an effective hydrating substance, and likewise for long-chain sugar molecules that are found in seaweed, aloe and noni. You can purchase dried seaweed products like Nori or Kelp or Kombu and hydrate them with some aloe or noni juice and make your own moisture restoring mask.

Jan

2014

The Brain is an Electrical Generator

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

The brain is an electrical generator, endlessly producing and emitting streams of energy. And no mere random, chaotic emanations of energy are these. Rather, they are more akin to the organized flow of water on the surface of the ocean. Scientists actually refer to these movements as waves, and measure their motion and patterns on a device called an EEG (electroencephalogram).

Like all waves, the ones produced by the brain ebb and flow. Electrical bursts “fire” and then cease “firing”, essentially blinking on and off. The amount of times a burst of brain electricity and its subsequent cessation, turn on and off in every second is called a “cycle” and measured as “cycles-per-second” (CPS). The number of cycles-per-second is referred to as the “frequency”. One that fires and stops firing, or cycles once a second, is said to have a frequency of one. If flow and ebb occurs twice a second the frequency would be 2, three flows and ebbs, or “cycles-per-second” would have a frequency of 3, and so on.

The energy emitted by the brain ebbs and flows at various frequencies throughout the day and ranges from a slumberous 1 CPS to a frenzied 100 CPS. Researchers divide this range into five categories, each associated with its own characteristic subjective qualities.
The fastest brain waves are called Gamma waves. These bursts of energy are occurring at an intense rate of up to 100 times a second. No one knows for sure what gamma waves are related to, although speculation centers on information processing functions including attention, cognition, and memory. Some researchers believe gamma waves may be involved in unifying all the different parts of our perceived reality. At the other end of the spectrum are the so-called Delta waves which ebb and flow at much more leisurely 3 or 4 cycles per second and can even drop down to 1 cycle per second. No surprise then that Delta waves are generated mostly in deep sleep. Between these extremes are the three most accessible frequencies Beta waves (12-16 CPS), Alpha waves (8-12 CPS), and Theta waves (4-8 CPS).

Beta waves represent the energy associated with concentration and problem solving. The brain will go into a predominant beta state when it is addressing survival requirements. Focusing intently on the sounds, sights and other aspects of your experience activates beta energy. But there’s also a dark side to beta. Freak outs, anger, hostility, and fear are all triggered by, AND in turn trigger further, beta brain wave energy.
The next two brain wave frequencies are by far the most interesting. These two brain wave states are associated with the subjective experiences associated with healing, and also love, relaxation, ecstasy and bliss. These are our “chill-out” brain waves and understanding how to activate these energies can be a very important strategy for mitigating excessive beta (and gamma) energies which can burn out the physical body if not effectively balanced.

Alpha waves are associated with relaxation. We are more open to suggestion in this state. Hypnotists love the alpha! So do advertisers and marketers (Hmmm…). In the alpha state we are so relaxed we basically don’t care to filter our experiences intently as when we are in beta state. This makes us suggestible. Television video has an ability to induce alpha waves. In fact that’s why we like TV so much. Human beings love the alpha state.
In addition to suggestibility, the alpha state is associated with learning. A scientist names Jose Silva discovered that if people could access the alpha state at will they could learn much more effectively. He created a study series called “The Silva Method” which you can purchase off the internet.

Learning to activate alpha on your own is easy. You can do it by simply by focusing on an alpha rhythm (8-12 cycles per second) using a metronome, or you can just pace your breathing. Listening closely to any of the body’s rhythms or focusing on a body part works too. In fact, focusing internally can instantly initiate alpha firing. Visualization can do it too. Looking at objects with the peripheral vision may also have an alpha induction effect.
The most intriguing brain energy is emitted in the theta state. It tends to follow the alpha state, and you’ll know your brain is firing theta frequencies when you’re experiencing the bizarre and confusing imagery that shows up as you’re falling asleep and into that midway point between waking and dreaming. This condition is technically is called “hypnogogia” and it can also occur when we awaken slowly out of the dream state. In theta, brain effects like relaxation and creativity are enhanced, and there is generally no awareness of the physical body, although there may be a sensing of it as an energy “field”. Self-healing is maximized in this state, and like alpha, it’s also an ideal brain state for self-programming and self-hypnosis. Like alpha, theta brain waves and the related state can be achieved via various means.

There is an important relationship between the breath and brain states. Not all the various brain states are linked to breathing patterns, but by using breath, and controlling its rate (breaths per minute), various states can be initiated and accessed. Psychedelic drugs like LSD, mescaline and psilocybin are well known inducers of theta. The nutritional supplement GABA which is used to treat insomnia may help access the theta state. Some research indicates that nicotine may have a theta induction effect. There are also audio CDs available that can stimulate the brain to produce theta pulsations via a turning-fork (resonance) effect and induce the corresponding characteristic theta hypnogogic state.

Jan

2014

Skin Care and the Cosmaceutical

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

The skin care business is, like many other businesses, steeped in and dependent on consumerism and marketing. Rather than having real effects, products have come to rely much more on sizzle. Many purchases are the result of nothing more than hype, and buying decisions are often functions of ignorance and advertising. The world of cosmetic products, as we know it today, was birthed in the late 19th and early 20th century. At the same time business enterprises were beginning to understand Freudian psychological theories of human motivations and buying behaviors, and how to use them to exploit and manipulate consumer minds and emotions. No business has leveraged human desires and vulnerabilities via sales and advertising more than the business of beauty. We are endlessly manipulated and contorted into spending our hard earned cash via celebrity sales pitches and the recommendations of dubious department store “advisors”.

But that all changed with the active ingredients dubbed “cosma-ceuticals” which worked as powerfully as prescriptions but were only regulated as cosmetics. The father of the cosmaceutical, Dr. Albert Kligman coined the term to distinguish inactive and superficial ingredients from those that went “…beyond mere camouflage…” and could achieve real and often long-term results. While it’s true that everything including water will inevitably alter the skin in some way, only true cosmaceuticals can provide the kind of performance most consumers expect, and are (mis-)led to believe, they’ll get when they purchase and apply their cream, lotion, toner and treatment skin care preparations and products.

The retinoids, Vitamin A molecules, were the first cosmaceutical substances and, to this day, are the most effective. These were followed by alpha hydroxy acids (AHAs), which are low pH extracts from fruit and plant materials that can achieve dramatic anti-aging and skin re-texturing effects. Then, most recently, a class of actives called peptides which affect the structure of the skin like a “-ceutical”, but that were intended to beautify like a “cosma-“, have become all the rage. The most important and the gold standard of peptides is a substance called “Matrixyl”.

The bottom line is, if you’re looking for skin care that works, look for cosmaceuticals. While the vast majority of products that you put on your skin are ineffective and inactive, using real cosmaceutical actives will allow you to bypass the standard, “extract-from-a-melon-that-grows-of-the-coast-of-France” type ingredients that you hear about on infomercials and promoted by movie stars. Retinoids, (retinol and retinoic acid primarily) and alpha hydroxy acids are cosmaceutical elements that really work. And Vitamin C, in its fat-soluble (the proper term is “lipophilic”) format, is one of the most effective topicals you could ever use. In fact, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and alpha hydroxy acids, (which include glycolic, lactic, citric, malic, and acetic acids), are the most important active ingredients and ones that everyone over the age 40 (or even 30) should be applying on a regular basis. I call them “The Big 3”: lipophilic Vitamin C, Vitamin A and AHAs, and they should be the core ingredients of any anti aging skin care program. And for the consumer who wants everything, consider adding in a peptide containing product, ideally one that contains proven and time-tested ingredient like Matrixyl.

Dec

2013

Mind, Emotions and the Skin

By Ben Fuchs | Pharmacist Ben

One of the most underappreciated aspects of skincare involves its relationship to the mind, emotions and the skin. Technically called “psychodermatology” this aspect of cutaneous health is being recognized more and more as a fundamental, if underappreciated cause of dermatological diseases. Psychodermatology recognizes that the skin, the brain, and the body’s defense (immune) system that deals with survival threats (real or imagined), are in reality three parts of one system. That means that if you are dealing with acne, psoriasis, eczema, vitiligo or any other skin heath issue, you should consider looking at it as the result of a real or imagined survival threat. By far the most important sources of these threats are not actual. They are mental and emotional. In other words, in the majority of threatening situations, our survival is not actually at risk, we simply “believe” it is! However, while these threats may only exist as thoughts and feelings they can and do manifest themselves as real physical effects such as itching and rashes (eczema), inflammation (psoriasis), oiliness (acne), and changes in pigmentation (melasma).

By Ruth Ellison (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons

If you go to a doctor, his management options according to the medical journal “American Family Physician” include “…psychotropic medication, stress management courses, and referral to a psychiatrist.” No surprise there. As always, the medical model focuses on symptoms and not the causes. But, not only are these particular interventions not necessary for effectively addressing dermatological reactions associated with mental and emotional health, you don’t need a doctor at all to deal with a skin condition caused by an activated stress management system. Aside from the avoiding of physical stress systems triggers like food allergens and topical irritants, reduction and elimination of psychological triggers is your best skin health strategy for eliminating psychodermatological reactions.
When obsessive troublesome thoughts hit, don’t believe them! And, don’t resist them. After all they’re not truths, they’re not even false! They are in actuality nothing more than a neural flux that forever flows and ebbs. Ultimately, despite the apparent vividness of the stories they tell, thoughts and their associated emotions are the result of sodium and potassium ions flowing across nerve cell membranes. Nothing more, nothing less. Simply watch as they appear, and then disappear. Also, recognize that there is a huge difference between thought ‘watching” and thought “thinking”. Rather than thinking thoughts, watch them as they inevitably and endlessly rise and fall. Just watch. Then notice how feelings immediately follow the thoughts, and watch those as well.

The stress survival response can be neutralized by an equally potent relaxation response. Learning to activate this relaxation system is the most helpful technique for withstanding and overriding the stress response. The body is a system and when it is stresses it is stressed as a system. And, when it relaxes it relaxes as a system. When any one part of the relaxation system is activated the entire body goes into relaxation mode and the stress response is suppressed all over the body. For example, simply by lightly touching an area of the skin, such as the palms of the hand or the soles of the feet, you can activate a bodywide, systemic relaxation response. Closing your eyes and turning them upwards toward the center of your forehead can accomplish the same global effect. Likewise with listening and focusing on the heartbeat.

Watching thoughts and emotions also tends to activate the relaxation nervous system. In fact, any neutral watching will turn on this system. That’s why we like TV and movies so much. We relax when we naturally observe. The same phenomena can be exploited via watching thoughts and feelings. Another one of the most powerful ways to activate the relaxation nervous system is to practice deep breathing techniques. Slow deep into the belly expanding of the abdominal muscles on the inhale and a long powerful exhale (slowly and gently exhaling the lungs out as much as you can, as you pull your belly in). The relaxation response is activated by the exhale, so spend a little more time on the exhale than the inhale.